Thursday, March 24, 2011

Americans have nine months left in which they can purchase 100-watt incandescent light bulbs. As of the first of 2011, no new 100-watt incandescent light bulbs (except for those left in the store’s inventory) can be sold to the American consumer.

The last factory manufacturing the 100-watt incandescent light bulb was has been closed and shuttered. The incandescent light bulb manufacturing business has moved the China.

The US manufacturers of light bulbs in America will make only fluorescent bulbs. You’d never guess, would you, that manufacturers will make more profit off the fluorescent bulbs than they did on the old incandescent bulbs?

Back in January of 2008, I wrote the following:

“The US Congress recently passed a bill to ban incandescent light bulb use in the United States by the year 2012. (The President signed it into law.) What will replace them? The compact fluorescent light bulb. Why does this upset me? WHY, indeed?!

I’ll point you in the direction of some evidence that the fluorescent bulbs may not be as helpful and energy efficient as claimed and might even damage American’s health and contribute to pollution of the earth. You decide, for yourself, if you really want to put them in your home, where you and your children will be exposed to them, or if you want to raise hell with the Congress until they repeal this ridiculous law and give us back our tried and true incandescent light bulbs.

Did you know it required a special exemption from the Environmental Protection Agency of the US government to allow fluorescent lamp bulbs to be sold to the pubic in the US in the first place? Why? Mercury, that’s why!“Fluorescent lights are filled with a gas containing low-pressure mercury vapor and argon, or sometimes even krypton. The inner surface of the bulb is coated with a fluorescent coating made of varying blends of metallic and rare earth phosphor salts.

Fluorescent light bulbs are more energy efficient than incandescent light bulbs of an equivalent brightness, and the efficiency of fluorescent lighting owes much to low-pressure mercury photon discharges. But fluorescents don't produce a steady light, and they burn out more quickly when cycled frequently; they also contain items such as fluorine, neon, and lead powder as well as mercury.” (From: “Compact fluorescent light bulbs contaminate the environment with 30,000 pounds of mercury each year.” You will find it HERE.

(This article -- referred to above -- was written by Mike Adams a natural health researcher and author with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company.)

Also from the same article we learn this:“According to http://www.lightbulbrecycling.com,/ each year an estimated 600 million fluorescent lamps are disposed of in U.S. landfills, amounting to 30,000 pounds of mercury waste. Astonishingly, that's almost half the amount of mercury emitted into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants each year. It only takes 4mg of mercury to contaminate up to 7,000 gallons of freshwater, meaning that the 30,000 pounds of mercury thrown away in compact fluorescent light bulbs each year is enough to pollute nearly every lake, pond, river and stream in North America (not to mention the oceans). “

Then, there is this. The CFL bulb “…. can cause people with epilepsy to experience symptoms similar to the early stages of a fit. There have also been complaints of discomfort from people with lupus.” Read more about this in The Daily Mail HERE.

Add to this the fact, and I do mean fact… that there certainly appears to be less light output (lumens) from the CFL than from an incandescent bulb.

Now… all the research I have done tells me that the CFL’s produce the same lumens as a comparable incandescent bulb. But, in practice, I have found that replacing a 60 watt incandescent with a 60 watt CFL will NOT produce the same amount of lighting. The area I am trying to light is dimmer, not lighted nearly as well, with the CFL as it was with the incandescent. I have found the same true with 75-watt bulbs and 100-watt bulbs. I have even swapped the 60’s out for 75’s and the 75’s out for 100 watt CFLs and I STILL don’t see the crisp brightness I get from the old incandescent bulb.

Now, I am not an engineer. I’m just an old country boy, who has been around the block few times, and experience tells me there HAS to be something different about the lumens emitted by an incandescent and the lumens emitted by a CFL. Is it a different KIND of light? Is that what the matter is?OK... so I did a bit more research and this is what I found:A 100-watt incandescent light bulb will produce about 1200 lumens. I read that a 20 t0 25 watt CFL will produce the same amount of lumens... but… if the light fixture you are using isn’t DESIGNED for CFLs you will get a "dingy looking" light. Not nearly as bright as the old incandescent bulb! It seems someone forgot to inform us that CFLs radiate their light differently. What that means is... that even though the CFL is producing the same amount of lumens, it may not be producing the same amount of LIGHT to the lighted area! AH -HAAA! I knew it!Read more on this HERE.

So, besides the fact that CFLs don’t work well in cold climates… or just plain old cold weather, they don’t work well, at all, in overhead fixtures, they don’t work, at all, with dimmers, they contain poison, they do not produce the same amount of light as the incandescent light bulbs… in today's light fixtures, and ...they must be treated as hazardous waste material when you get ready to toss one out, … why… they’re just GREAT!

Why do I get the feeling I’ve been scammed… yet again?As I write, I am in my office, and I have five different light fixtures on right now. I have CFLs in all five of them and, frankly, it is as through I am sitting here, in front of this computer, working by the light of a number of oil lamps situated around the room! The light is that bad!

If I drop something on the floor, I have to get up and turn on the overhead lights, which have incandescent bulbs in them, so I can find the dropped item on the floor.This is madness! I’m at the point, with the CFL bulbs, that I would happily see the oceans boil and keep my incandescent bulbs!Between now and 2012, I’m going to horde as many incandescent light bulbs as I can get. Every trip to the store I intend to buy light bulbs and store them.We should condem the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb to hell! (This article can be found HERE.”)

Although there is SOME movement abroad in the Congress to repeal this ban on 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, who knows how the unresponsive bunch of old hippies, tree-huggers, and “Gaia worshippers” will vote -- especially in the Senate!

It is time to do two things: Aggravate the living daylights out of Congress -- and the President -- to repeal this abomination of a law – and begin hoarding incandescent light bulbs every time you venture to a store stocking light bulbs. I have already begun stocking all the incandescents I can get my hands on. (Remember -- many of today’s light fixtures will not even allow a CFL bulb’s usage. They simply will not fit in them – and -- when they do … the actual lighting produced by them is so poor that you may have to set up lamps, in the same room, with incandescent bulbs in them -- just so you can see! Consider this: You may well be forced to change every light fixture in your home, your office, your business, etc, just to accommodate those cussed, pathetic, excuses for a light bulb.

So far, our toilets have to be flushed multiple times in order to remove the waste, which actually increases the use of water rather than saving the water. Our showerheads are so poor we have to install additional plumbing to increase the pressure, or drill out the holes so more water can get thru and the bather can, at least, get the soap of him or her.

Our gasoline is dilutee by ethanol, something we southern folks recognize as a form of rot-gut home distilled whiskey, which comes from corn -- and is driving the cost of food stuffs and nearly everything else sky high.

Government intrusion in our lives has reached the intolerable point and we have to fight back.

It is time to let your congressperson, including your senators, know you are sick and tired of all this BS and make sure they understand you intend to vote in November of 2012.

What of course happens with the regulationsis that the cheap (and own unprofitable) competition is wiped out atthe stroke of a pen or the banging of a gavel.No need for sleepless nights wondering how to market your moreprofitable alternative!But also, by removing the cheap competition, there is less pressure toimprove existing products that already pass the magic standard,or to make new ones that go much beyond the standard – and to do so ata low price.

Sure:Energy Efficiency is good.But not by“Regulation that stimulates manufacturers”but by“Competition that stimulates manufacturers”… and all other businesses.

This is done by looking at the whole chain of energy use, fromproduction to consumption, as with the electricity sector:How power plants use less fuel, say coal, in supplying electricity,how grids have less transmission losses,how businesses and consumers use less electricity,how manufacturers use less electricity in making products,and – yes – how they also make energy efficient products, that peoplewant to buy and use.Under competitive pressure, manufacturers are forced into marketresearch of what people actually want.People of course do want energy efficient products that can them savemoney from saving energy – if the products are good enough.Inventors can be helped to the marketplac­e.

People have always wanted a variety of such products:

Notice that free markets already delivered the CFLs, LEDs, Halogensetc lightingThey have to already exist when regulations are madeOtherwise people might literally be left in the dark!

The notion is then that “Markets Fail”:the energy saving products are not bought enough,as regulators look around to see where the energy savings might be greatest.

Not only are the energy savings hardly there, for many reasons (see link below)but this also brings up the strange logic of regulations:The more popular an energy demanding product is,the greater the reason to ban it,because the greater the supposed energy savings involved, fromstopping people buying what they want(no “big savings” from stopping people buying what they don’t want!)

Regulators keep extolling “How great the new energy saving LEDlighting etc will be”: Fine.Then let the manufacturers get off their backsides and market those“great” products accordingly,rather than look to ban the popular cheap competition so as to makeeasy profits out of Joe Citizen.

“Expensive to buy but cheap in the long run”?Battery (Energizer bunny!) and washing up liquid manufacturers canimaginatively advertise and sell such products – if they are goodenough.So can light bulb and other manufacturers,rather than force people into buying overly-expensive inferiorproducts they would not otherwise buy.

How manufacturers and vested interests have pushed for the ban on regular light bulbs,and lobbied for CFL favors: ceolas.net/#li1ax with documentation and copies of official communications

What of course happens with the regulations is that the cheap (and own unprofitable) competition is wiped out at the stroke of a pen...

Competition - not Regulation:Under competitive pressure, manufacturers are forced into market research of what people actually want.People of course do want energy efficient products that can them save money from saving energy – if the products are good enough.

Energy/Money saving products have always been made and bought.Notice that appropriate energy saving bulbs have to already exist when regulations are set- or people might literally be left in the dark! The Free Market already deliveredCFLs LEDs and Halogens,and the Free Market improves them as required in the future.

Compare with regulations:By removing the cheap competition, there is less pressure to improve existing products that already pass the "magic" standard,or to make new products that go much beyond the standard – and to do so at a low price.

“Expensive to buy but cheap in the long run”?Battery (Energizer bunny!) and washing up liquid manufacturers canimaginatively advertise and sell such products – if they are good enough.So can light bulb and other manufacturers,rather than lobby for easy profits via legislation that forces people into buying overly-expensive inferior products they would not otherwise buy

How manufacturers and vested interests have pushed for the ban on regular light bulbs, and how CFL favors have been doled out: http://ceolas.net/#li1ax with documentation and copies of official communications

Clear several times in order to remove the waste, which actually increases the use of water instead of water. Shower we are poor so we have to install additional health to increase the pressure, or dig holes more than that can be obtained through water and bather.

I'm not really sure if I already commented in this blog but I've been reading a lot of issues about CFLs and the danger it may bring. I don't know if I already need to change my bulbs at home. All of my bulbs are CFLs. My contractor who took his Contractor Continuing Education said that LED is much better to use.